An old tale circulates the Keep from time to time, whispered from one magi to another during dark nights and stormy weather, a tale about an old mystery and the origin of a mysterious creature...

The tale of Rederan Village starts out a cheery tale, on a day like any other. The sun shone brightly on the sand and buildings, warming those who went outside. The sun also shone brightly on the scales of the resident wyvern, who was the companion of the village's headman. A magi of some small talent, the wyvern was his only true companion. She had been a gift from his mentor, and he hand-raised her from the egg. Once his days of learning at the Keep were over, he returned to his family's home in the village and brought his wyvern with him. The sly and cunning nature of the wyvern meant that she chose not to live within the village, but instead on the nearby mountain which was riddled with caves.

As that fateful day wore on, however, the people began to notice something strange - the sky was growing very dark, very quickly. A huge shadow was slowly covering the sun, blotting out any light from reaching the desert village. The village elders calmed the fears of the others, recalling tales from when they were children of a similar eclipse - they said that while it was eerie, it did no harm. They advised the villagers to rest inside and wait for the next morning, when the eclipse should be gone and everything would be back to normal. Grateful for the wisdom of the elders and the protection of the headman's wyvern, the villagers followed the advice and slept early that night, for it was too dark to do anything else.

That night, a sandstorm struck the village. Amid the howling winds, there was something else.

None have the words to describe it. None are even sure of what it was - a creature, or a magi's spell gone awry, or something else entirely. The only words used to describe it are a "terrible force", ripping the doors and shutters off of homes. Though the sandstorm covered most of the noises, it could not cover the screams of the villagers or the wrenching noises of the hinges being pulled apart.

The wyvern awoke in her cave, startled awake by the noises. Realizing she could not fly in the sandstorm, she was forced to walk from her cave to the village, flattening herself to the ground and trudging her way along as quickly as she could.

The village itself was still standing, but now it was eerie and empty of villagers everywhere she looked. Strangled hisses began to escape from her mouth as she realized that her people were gone. Without fail, every house was missing its doors and windows, filling with sand, no humans to be found. Distressed and exhausted from her struggles against the sandstorm, she fell asleep against the side of the headman's house, the sandstorm slowly covering her.

She awoke again at dawn, opening her eyes to see a film of red and fighting her way out of the sand that had piled over her. The village still stood empty and eerie, and the wyvern whined at the lack of sound and the sight of red sand. A quick sniff told her that the sand was not stained with blood, but that it actually seemed to be powdered rubies or something similar. She herself was so stained with the sand that she was no longer green, but a shimmering red.

The wyvern was alone, having lost her village and her companion. No amount of searching helped, because there seemed to be no trace - her people had vanished into thin air. As the years passed, her mind slowly began to slip away, lost to both her grief and her ceaseless search.

One dreadful day, humans came back.

She heard them as they rode into the village, harnesses and saddles jingling, their voices hushed murmurs. They had come to investigate the mysterious disappearance and attempt to discern what had happened. In her ravaged mind, they had come to wreak even more havoc upon her village. She charged from her cave, shrieking a war cry, ready to kill. While the magi she attacked had no wish to kill her, and even attempted to reach her with healing spells, her mind was too far gone to be susceptible to the healing. With heavy hearts and tears streaking their cheeks, they were forced to strike her down from the sky.

While they didn't know the fully story, they were able to make an educated guess. They buried her on her lonely mountain, vowing that they would discover what had happened.

Of course, upon their return to the Keep and discussion with the other magi about the mysterious village, some magi were all too willing to use the misfortune of Rederan Village to their own benefit.

To this day, the events at Rederan Village are still a mystery. The buildings still stand as they were all those years ago, and the grave of the wyvern is still visited. The sands still shimmer with red, and rumors still circulate the Keep that, if your bring a wyvern to the village, it will hatch into a ruby-red beast.